


but if the silence takes you

by orphan_account



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, F/M, M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-26
Updated: 2014-05-26
Packaged: 2018-01-26 10:16:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1684718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is afterwards that you realize that he hasn't married you out of love but duty, for Robb Stark is his father's son.</p>
            </blockquote>





	but if the silence takes you

**Author's Note:**

> I HONEST TO GOD CANT DECIDE IF I LIKE THE SECOND PERSON OR NOT
> 
> ah whatever
> 
> title from soul meets body by death cab for cutie (the lyric ends "then i hope it takes me too" not that u needed to know that)

It is afterwards that you realize that he hasn't married you out of love but duty- _duty, that hard cruel unforgiving word_ \- for Robb Stark is his father's son.

It is nearly nightfall when Rollam comes bearing a message. "Your Grace, some men have come with a wounded man. They say you'll let them in."

"Who are they?" Robb asks, looking up for the first time in hours, perhaps, you don't know; his desk is covered in crumpled parchment half scrawled with ink and discarded.

"Men of the Night's Watch. They say that you wouldn't refuse a brother."

You don’t think there’s anything odd about this message—men of the Night’s Watch are often called the sworn brothers, or the black brothers—but your husband starts up, and there's a look on his face that's hard to read. "Show them in."

Rollam leads you to a spare room, where a small group of men are grouped around the bed. A maester, bent over it, moves aside when you enter, and Robb's eyes go wide.

Honestly, you can't see what's so interesting about the man- boy, really, he can't be more than sixteen- lying there, apart from the blood seeping from his wounds into the sheets. A servant is sponging away dirt and grime from his skin, face and arms and chest, pale and delicate as paper, and you can tell he's not exceptionally handsome, not like Robb. But he, your husband, the King in the North, goes to his knees beside the bed, pushing the servant away gently (everything he does is gentle, you think, but for the way he'd taken Lord Karstark's head, snowflakes melting in his hair and determination setting his face).

" _Jon_ ," he whispers, like no one but the man before him is meant to hear, like if he dies he'll take Robb with him. "Jon," again, louder, and then he looks up at the black brothers. "What happened? Why was he hurt? Why did you come here, instead of Castle Black?"

"It was too far to carry him," one says, startlingly fat for a man of the Night's Watch, and just then you notice that all the other men are only a bit older than you and Robb and Jon-in-the-bed, cannot be more than boys. "We- he- the Old Bear-" and then he bows his head, unable to say any more. Robb looks from him to the others.

"Tell me. What happened?" His face is pale and his eyes very large, making him look like a little boy, a scared little boy, and that is when you realize that Robb does not love you. He cannot love you, because he has given his heart to this boy, this black brother, this Jon. You do not know who he is, but you know that he is Robb's just as Robb is his, and that you could never part them, not ever if you tried. Lady Catelyn would call this a woman's instinct, you think, and indeed you know in your heart that it's true.

But you do not say anything- nothing while the fat brother, Samwell, explains how Jon had been hurt, nothing when he plunges your king into a world of wights and wildlings, nothing when Robb leans over and roughly brushes his lips over Jon's forehead, something that would otherwise be a brotherly gesture. Nothing.

For you are still the king's wife, and the king's wife must never let her feelings get in the way. Your duty- _there it is again, that word_ \- is to the king and the king only.

Even if he does not love you.

Not the way you love him.


End file.
